Friday, January 13, 2012

goofing off when trying to write!

Mornings in Idaho are still dark at eight o'clock, so when I popped awake at 4:45 I thought, far out! Plenty of time to write before sunrise and have the whole day ahead of me. Well, three hours later I was still fooling around on Facebook, Twitter, reading links to Will & Kate and drinking tons of coffee. By the time I reminded myself WHY I had gotten up early, it was nearly 9 a.m. and I had written exactly ONE sentence on my Great American Novel.

Aargh! Resolved to try again in the afternoon, I was checking email and clicking through intriguing links. A blog by Seth Godin grabbed me. I don't know anything about him, but his words cut right to my heart:

"The first thing you do when you sit down at the computer is, let me guess: check the incoming. Check email or traffic stats or messages from your boss. Check the tweets you follow or the FB status of friends. You've just surrendered not only a block of time but your freshest, best chance to start something new ... If you're an artist, a leader or someone seeking to make a difference, the first thing you do should be to lay tracks to accomplish your goals, not to hear how others have reacted/responded/insisted to what happened yesterday."

Boy am I guilty. From now on I resolve to stop wasting time. A little bit here and there is okay, but no more inhaling movie reviews or lurid crime stories. No more Facebook games about What-Character-Are-You on Downton Abbey. (I'm Lady Sybil by the way). No more goofing off. But first to post this and maybe check email, just a quick peek ...